THE WEEK THAT WAS

Dulhan | Hum TV, Mondays 8.00pm

Goody-two-shoes daughter Amal (Sumbul Iqbal) is coerced into a promise by her stepmother (Nida Mumtaz) that Amal will never get married, and will always be the breadwinner for the family. But Mikaal (Sami Khan) lures her into such a trap that she and her father Mirza (the universal betiyoon ka baap Mohammed Ahmed who soon conks off, leaving daughters behind in misery in every second play on TV) pull off a simple nikaah with the too-good-to-be-true beau Mikaal. It turns out that Mikaal was just helping out sleazeball Shahmir (Faizan Khawaja) get access to Amal, in return for Shahmir’s fancy car. On the wedding night, Mikaal shreds the nikaahnama and disappears. When Shahmir appears instead of Mikaal, Amal hits his head with a vase (there is always one conveniently available in our plays in such situations), and flees. Later, following stepmother’s bad reactions, Mirza ends up in the hospital and expensive surgery is required for which Amal’s jewellery is sold off, but Mirza still dies. If you are insanely gullible and enjoy watching mindless misery, this serial is for you.

Kashf | Hum TV, Tuesdays 8.00pm

Matiullah (Saleem Mairaj) has transformed from a fake spiritual healer into some kind of a don. He orchestrates complete disaster in Kashf’s (Hira Mani) life, to pressurise her to get into a partnership with him at his astaana — Kashf’s father Imtiaz (Waseem Abbas) gets arrested for tax evasion, her husband Wajdaan (Junaid Khan) meets with a near-fatal car accident, while Kashf’s family lose their home and wealth. Kashf is left with no choice but to make a deal with Matiullah, and hence Imtiaz gets released from jail and she pays huge hospital bills for hubby Wajdaan. But when Wajdaan gets better, he raises hell and accuses Kashf for using the bad time as an excuse to get back to something that he had forbidden her to do. If you have better things to do on Tuesday evening, do them!

What To Watch Out For (Or Not)

Jalan | ARY, Wednesdays 8.00pm

Overwhelmed by circumstances, where her heartless sister Neesha (Minal Khan) has stolen her husband Asfand (Emmad Irfani) and she is left alone with a newborn baby, Meenu (Areeba Habib) takes the drastic step to torch herself to death. She dies in the hospital but it has little or no effect on Neesha, while Asfand lies to the police that Meenu had a mental condition. But Asfand and Neesha living happily ever after is highly unlikely because of an interesting twist in the story. Asfand’s sister Kinza (Nadia Hussain totally owning her role) is taking her share of the property away, leaving Asfand less wealthy than before. This and the fact that Asfand wants to bring his motherless baby home brings out the true colours of the wicked, greedy and selfish Neesha, so Asfand can now see what a huge mistake he has made. This role is a milestone for the young actor Minal Khan. Jalan continues to entertain.

Published in Dawn, ICON, October 25th, 2020